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dnshostingttlnamecheap

Why are there several options for Time to Live (TTL) (on ie Namecheap)

If I add a new record to my domain, I have the option to set the TTL (in minutes) to 5, 20, 30, 60 or automatic.

Does the TTL actually mean the time before it goes live? Then why is there an option to wait longer for it? If not, then what does it mean exactly?

Solution

  • First, those values are somewhat unusual (unless they are in minutes, but common unit of measure for DNS TTL is seconds). It is just a directive for DNS client, how long should they cache the resolved value:

    • if the value is lower, once you make any changes in the future, clients will take less time to become aware of the new value
    • if the value is higher, clients will have to make DNS queries less often, resulting in less load on DNS server (which you don't care about), but also faster opening of the first page (since there is already resolved IP address in DNS cache).

    For typical A records, anything between 60 and 3600 seconds is common these days.